hundred pounds in the turning of a tramp. Her
mother shall have soul enough to ride a sweepstake snatch at a
horse-race; her maiden aunt shall have soul enough to purchase the
furniture of a whole toy-shop, and others shall have soul enough to
behave as if they had no souls at all."
The "Citizen of the World" cannot understand why there are so many old
maids and bachelors in England. He regards the latter as most
contemptible, and says the mob should be permitted to halloo after them;
boys might play tricks on them with impunity; every well-bred company
should laugh at them, and if one of them, when turned sixty, offered to
make love, his mistress might spit in his face, or what would be a
greater punishment should fairly accept him. Old maids he would not
treat with such severity, because he supposes they are not so by their
own fault; but he hears that many have received offers, and refused
them. Miss Squeeze, the pawnbroker's daughter, had heard so much about
money, that she resolved never to marry a man whose fortune was not
equal to her own, without ever considering that some abatement should be
made as her face was pale and marked with the small-pox. Sophronia loved
Greek, and hated men. She rejected fine gentlemen because they were not
pedants, and pedants because they were not fine gentlemen. She found a
fault in every lover, until the wrinkles of old age overtook her, and
now she talks incessantly of the beauties of the mind.
The character of the information contained in the daily newspapers is
thus described--
"The universal passion for politics is gratified with daily papers,
as with us in China. But, as in ours, the Emperor endeavours to
instruct his people; in theirs the people endeavour to instruct the
Administration. You must not, however, imagine that they who
compile these papers have any actual knowledge of politics or the
government of a state; they only collect their materials from the
oracle of some coffee-house, which oracle has himself gathered them
the night before from a beau at a gaming-table, who has pillaged
his knowledge from the great man's porter, who has had his
information from the great man's gentleman, who has invented the
whole story for his own amusement the night preceding."
He gives the following specimens of contradictory newspaper intelligence
from abroad.
"_Vienna._--We have received certa
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